GIGABYTE 990X-Gaming SLI Motherboard
AMD recently updated their motherboard chipset, hence you have seen some new 900 series SKUs lately. Gigabyte added the GIGABYTE 990X-Gaming SLI. Two new features are USB 3.1 support as well as an M.2. interface.
The latest USB 3.1 implementation offers a 10Gb/s transfer speed, 2x faster than USB 3.0 and backward compatibility with existing USB devices. The new 22110/2280/2260/2242 M.2 solution offers considerably faster storage performance and support for both PCIe and SATA interface for M.2 SSD devices.
You probably guessed it from the naming already, 2-Way CrossFire/2-Way SLI Multi-Graphics Multi-graphics configuration offers better graphics performance for gaming enthusiasts, and a Realtek ALC1150 is a high-performance multi-channel high definition audio codec that delivers an audio listening experience with up to 115dB SNR. High Quality audio capacitors deliver the highest quality sound resolution and sound expansion to create the most realistic sound effects for professional gamers.
The motherboard is compatible with AMD AM3+ FX processors, AMD AM3 Phenom II / AMD Athlon II processors. The board supports up to 32 GB of dual-channel DDR3-2400 memory. Expansion slots are two PCI-Express 2.0 x16 slots (x8/x8 when both are populated), PCI-Express 2.0 x1, and one legacy PCI. Storage includes a 20 Gb/s M.2 slot, and six SATA 6 Gb/s ports.
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Senior Member
Posts: 1401
Joined: 2014-07-22
Jesus christ man think you could of posted some bigger pictures maybe?> Lol! Anyway....This makes me wonder why Amd is updating its 990 Fx chipset considering Zen is so close to launch! I think they are preparing us for yet another let-down, lets hope I am not right on this one.
In the mean time I will stick with Intel until they can show me otherwise.
The 990FX core-logic chipset is not new at all, or updated from AMD. This motherboard is one of many OEM-updated motherboards to ship recently that employ the AMD 990FX chipset, which has been available for a long time--years, actually. The USB 3.1 & etc. functionality is provided custom by the mboard OEM. AMD released the 970 and the 990 FX AM3+ chipsets long ago--and you can tell easily by the fact that these boards still use PCIe 2.x, when AMD's newest chipset boards for its APUs all support PCIe 3.x and some other things. The 970 chipset boards work best with FX cpus of 95W and <, whereas the 990 chipset is designed for 125W+ AMD cpus.
MSI has a new updated 990FX board for sale as does ASUS. This Gigabyte board is their latest, too.
The ZEN chipset will definitely be PCIe 3.x plus a lot more and it will not be AM3+. I think these companies are all shipping new 970/990 mboards because they had neglected their AMD board upgrades for a long time. But the upgrades are all OEM-specific add-ons.
Senior Member
Posts: 1568
Joined: 2004-12-10
Excellent board.

Senior Member
Posts: 175
Joined: 2006-01-08
I may end up picking up this board, mine has had random issues over time. I thought it was hardware related (cpu, gpu) but since I've recently changed those out, I can blame the issues on my mainboard. But, with zen so close, I may just wait it out.